2010 Version of unions pdf in its entirety

EDITOR W. Bradford Wilcox

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Elizabeth Marquardt

FOUNDING CO-EDITORSDavid Popenoe & Barbara Dafoe Whitehead

ARTICLES

New data indicate that trends in nonmarital childbearing, divorce, and marital quality in Middle America increasingly resemble those of the poor, where marriage is fragile and weak. Yet among the highly educated and affluent, marriage is stable and appears to be getting even stronger.

“When Marriage Disappears,” by W. Bradford Wilcox, editor of The State of Our Unions and associate professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, addresses the causes of the retreat from marriage in Middle America. Wilcox finds that shifts in marriage attitudes, increases in unemployment, and declines in religious attendance are among the trends driving this retreat. Meanwhile, in a striking reversal of historic trends, highly educated Americans are moving to embrace a pro-marriage mindset even as Middle Americans are losing ground when it comes to marriage.